Pokérus - spreading to newly hatched Pokemon?

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Uhm, hey there anyone. Got a question, or maybe one could see it as an interesting issue I've noticed.

So, I've been hatching some eggs lately, all while having some Pokemon infected with Pokerus in my party. As those Pokemon hatched, I've made an observation:

   

One of this Pokemon, a female Minicorn, was immediatly after hatching infected with Pokerus. Without participating in a fight, without even gathering a single EV. My dear pure unicorn...

Now I'm wondering: Did that happen to anyone else, too? Is it just luck? Is it - well, not really, since Pokerus seems to be some kind of microorganism - inheritable?

[Iron]

Microorganisms that can be "inherited" are called "endogenous" and there are many of them in real life. Some do nothing, like the ones latent within human DNA. Some few viruses are beneficial, and lots of useful bacterial cultures are passed along even in the womb. Some are horrible, like HIV.

But that's the real world. What about Pokemon?

Infection
When a Pokémon is infected with Pokérus, their status screen will display an icon indicating this special "status" the same way status conditions would be noted. If the Pokémon becomes affected by a status condition such as Sleep, the Pokérus icon will be temporarily replaced until the status condition is cured. As long as the Pokémon is infected with Pokérus, it can spread the virus to other Pokémon in the player's party.

Pokérus may spread if an infected Pokémon is in the player's party after a battle. Pokérus may only spread to a Pokémon directly adjacent to an already infected Pokémon and only if they have never had Pokérus before. From Generation III onward, Eggs may catch Pokérus like any other Pokémon.

So it is not inherited from the mother, but passed through the eggshell membrane from other infected party members.
And you don't have to participate in a battle to gain it, but your party needs to battle for you.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Thanks a lot, Iron, for your detailed reply.

I overlooked beneficial microorganisms in this case, sorry for that flaw. Plus, I was aware that viruses  like HIV can indeed be spreaded to an offspring, if at least one of the parents is infected - but I excluded them because viruses are no "living beings", and it's highly questionable whether they can be considered as "microorganisms" as well. After all, they have an own branch called "virology", same on the tree of life.

And I honestly did not know that eggs may catch Pokerus, hence thanks for the information. Through the membrane of the eggshell, you say? Hmm... just found an old but interesting looking scientific review online on how that may work on poultry eggs. To avoid copyright issues, I restrain from sharing the link to it, though.

(...)

Infection
When a Pokémon is infected with Pokérus, their status screen will display an icon indicating this special "status" the same way status conditions would be noted. If the Pokémon becomes affected by a status condition such as Sleep, the Pokérus icon will be temporarily replaced until the status condition is cured. As long as the Pokémon is infected with Pokérus, it can spread the virus to other Pokémon in the player's party.

Pokérus may spread if an infected Pokémon is in the player's party after a battle. Pokérus may only spread to a Pokémon directly adjacent to an already infected Pokémon and only if they have never had Pokérus before. From Generation III onward, Eggs may catch Pokérus like any other Pokémon.

So it is not inherited from the mother, but passed through the eggshell membrane from other infected party members.
And you don't have to participate in a battle to gain it, but your party needs to battle for you.

What goes against this though, is that I don't remember battleing anything/anyone during hatching that particular Minicorn. In fact, it hatched during taking a break from cycling around Route 9 and buying some supplies in Bealbeach's DepartmentStore... look at my newly hatched unicorn, Dad!

[Iron]

It's true that most scientists don't consider viruses truly alive, mostly because they don't reproduce without a host.

[Lord Windos]

I can back that up. Truly fansinating things, for they are more akin to genetic manufactures than any truly living thing. It is just that they get their means of production from other sources, ranging from microbes to mammals like us. Influenza is a common example of a virus, one that undergoes several novel changes in its coding in order to be more effective, so to speak.

Then there is HIV, a particular subtype know as a retro virus. Rather nasty, and completely impossible to treat (at the moment), due to the fact that the base virus undergoes so many changes in its sequence that any treatment for it quickly becomes obsolete....

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

I can back that up. Truly fansinating things, for they are more akin to genetic manufactures than any truly living thing. It is just that they get their means of production from other sources, ranging from microbes to mammals like us. Influenza is a common example of a virus, one that undergoes several novel changes in its coding in order to be more effective, so to speak.
(...)

Ahhhh, Influenza. Damn you, H1N1, that we still don't know exactly where you actually came from.

Anyway, this new discovery will be quite helpful on my Pokerus-epidemic.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Digital report #01, Friday, 21/10/16

Hatched five eggs today while having Fawkes as the last Pokemon in party, ergo the only one ready for battle. He currently suffers from Pokerus. No battle was attended from the point of obtaining the eggs and the point all five Pokemon hatched, not against trainer, nor against any wild Pokemon.

None of the hatched Pokemon got infected with Pokerus.

Further examination of that issue shall be conducted in the future.

[SmokedMemes]

Digital report #01, Friday, 21/10/16

Hatched five eggs today while having Fawkes as the last Pokemon in party, ergo the only one ready for battle. He currently suffers from Pokerus. No battle was attended from the point of obtaining the eggs and the point all five Pokemon hatched, not against trainer, nor against any wild Pokemon.

None of the hatched Pokemon got infected with Pokerus.

Further examination of that issue shall be conducted in the future.

In my opinion, the eggshell theory seems the most plausible, if it WAS inherited from the mother then the breeder's association would have caught whim of this long ago (maybe they even would have started exploiting it).

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

In my opinion, the eggshell theory seems the most plausible, if it WAS inherited from the mother then the breeder's association would have caught whim of this long ago (maybe they even would have started exploiting it).

I never said I'm against this theory. In fact, this little test up there seemes to proof this.

[SmokedMemes]

In my opinion, the eggshell theory seems the most plausible, if it WAS inherited from the mother then the breeder's association would have caught whim of this long ago (maybe they even would have started exploiting it).

I never said I'm against this theory. In fact, this little test up there seemes to proof this.

And neither have i said you were, all I'm saying is lets keep this on the low, we don't want to let the breeder's association find out about this. (even though their leader will probably show up in a second)